Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 5, 2015. Serbia’s OK Spartak LJIG claimed on Sunday the title of the 2015 men’s BVA Cup after routing Romania’s C.S.M. BUCURESTI in the final match (3:0; 25-15, 25-21, 25-21). Turkey’s Besiktas ISTANBUL settled for third place after edging hosts OK Radnik BIJELJINA in three sets as well (25-19, 25-15, 25-21). As for OK Spartak LJIG, apart from putting an end to Turkey’s supremacy in the BVA Cup, they also secured the right to join the 2016 edition of the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup where they will start their journey playing Albania’s Studenti TIRANA in the second round.

Spartak LJIG started the final match with C.S.M. BUCURESTI with a terrific 7:1 run which paved the way for a speedy 25-15 set win. The second set was a lot closer as teams traded points almost all the way through before Spartak LJIG edged ahead and finished it off at 25-21. Spartak’s victorious run continued also in the third set where they imposed their rule as well and with another 25-21 win they claimed gold and with it also secured the coveted ticket to enter this year’s CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup.

The mentor of Spartak LJIG, Bogdan Velickovic, had quite something to celebrate: “I would like to congratulate my players on their performance at this tournament. They once more stuck to the game plan we had agreed upon. They were focussed, disciplined and motivated and this way they achieved a great success for our club. This achievement results into our first participation in the Challenge Cup and I am confident that we will represent our club and our country in a good way,” he said.

“Of course we are not that happy because we ended up losing the final but I would like to congratulate Spartak on their performance, at this stage they showed that they are better than us,” said the Serbian-born coach of C.S.M. BUCURESTI, Rade Dacovic. “I also would like to praise the organisers of this tournament for the excellent job they did,” he added.

Turkey’s Besiktas ISTANBUL bounced back from their setback in the semis and did not have any problems in claiming the bronze medal match with hosts OK Radnik BIJELJINA. Their supremacy in the game was questioned only in the third set where the hosts claimed an early lead at the first technical time out. However, Besiktas fought their way back and finished the set at 25-21 and with this sealed their 3:0 win.

“We lost our first match in this tournament and this was quite a setback for us but we were able to regroup and focus on the next one,” said Besiktas’ player Ferhat Akdenis. “We really wanted to claim at least third place in this tournament; we played a lot better than we had done in the semis, won the game and are happy with that.”

“As far as this game is concerned, I have to admit that I am quite disappointed with it,” said home mentor Darko Manojlovic. “Our opponents showed their quality and played good Volleyball; however, we never found our way into the game and I am sorry that we did not show our best in this last, deciding match of this home competition. I hope we will have another opportunity to play such high-profile opponent as Besiktas. I congratulate them on their well-deserved victory. As for the tournament, I think it was very well organised and it did fulfil everyone’s expectations,” he concluded.